Last month I was part of a team of activists who organized a march against street harassment in Washington, DC. It was empowering to walk the streets with a diverse crowd of community members, reminding people that they are “our streets, too.” It also felt empowering to raise more awareness about this important issue offline.
Even though street harassment often is a controversial topic, during the march itself, I felt safe and passersby were generally supportive. I didn’t notice any harassment or heckling, which had been a slight concern going into the march. It probably helped that there were numerous male allies in our midst.
I hope the same will be true next week when feminist activist and Dickinson College sophomore Noorjahan Akbar helps lead a community march against street harassment in Kabul, Afghanistan. I suspect their march will be quite different from ours, especially since many people at ours wore shorts and tank tops in the warm summer sun. In addition to having different clothing choices and probably a lot more chance of facing harassment and even attack from passersby, their march will be historic for marking the first time people are taking public action around street harassment in Afghanistan.
The Facebook event page highlights what will take place:
“Hadia, a group of Afghan volunteers, and Young Women for Change (YWC), an organization working for the welfare and empowerment of Afghan women, would like to invite youth across the city to join hands in a campaign [called Advocacy for Dignity] against street harassment of women on Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 3 p.m.
The majority of the participants of this campaign will be women to guarantee the comfort of female participants, but young men who oppose the disrespect of women are also welcome to this event.
Approximately a hundred youth will start walking from Chahari Sadaarat, Shahr, at 3 p.m. and walk to the Ministry of Women’s Affairs. This [march] … will end after a half hour gathering in front of the MOWA. During the campaign, members of Hadia and YWC will encourage the public to partake in the peaceful walk as a sign of protest and a method for raising awareness on the un-Islamic act of women’s harassment.
In addition to advocating through the walk, Hadia and YWC members want to use media and propaganda as a means of raising awareness to recognize street harassment of women as a violation of their human rights and an issue that discourages women from social participation.”
How exciting! Yesterday I corresponded with Akbar via Facebook about the march. She told me more about why they are holding it:
“The main reason we are holding this campaign is that despite the fact that women’s harassment is a serious problem that discourages many women from active participation in the society, it is not recognized as a problem. Women often remain silent when they are harassed and men believe it is normal to assault women, just like drinking water.
Harassment of women has gotten worse in the last couple of years as more women have started going out of their houses for schooling or jobs. However, that is not the only reason harassment has increased. Governmental regulations to restrict women’s behavior and clothing, for example the proposed wedding law that requires women to dress “modestly’ in weddings, encourages the people who think like the Taliban and believe women should remain in their homes to harass women as they exit their houses and use women’s “inappropraite” clothing as an excuse.
Through our campaign, we hope that sexual harassment will be recognized as a problem, discussed in the Afghan media and men, rather than the victims who are women, will be held responsible for their disrespectful behavior.”
Except for the middle paragraph, her quote could have been written by almost any woman around the world. Globally, street harassment is not acknowledged as a serious problem (though thanks to important groups like the New York City Council and UN Women who are taking on this issue, this is shifting a little bit) and we need to help raise awareness that it is and get men involved in being part of the solution.
This global problem requires a global response and I am so excited to add Afghanistan to the growing list of countries where there is resistance and activism taking place to make public places safer for women and girls.
For more information about this march and related feminist activism in Kabul, read a UN Dispatch published just yesterday called The Rise of Afghanistan’s Fearless Young Feminists.
Stay tuned for a blog post after July 14 recapping how their march went.
